Son of prominent Coahuila family pleads guilty to cocaine...

1of12San Antonio is a safe haven for the upper class of the Mexican state of Coahuila, which has strong ties to Texas. Today, Coahuila is nearly $3 billion in debt and prosecutors on both sides of the border say former government officials and businessmen laundered tens of millions of dollars in South Texas.

Click through the slideshow to see the players.

2of12Since 2012, U.S. prosecutors have charged six people and seized tens of millions of dollars in property in connection to what they say is money stolen from the state of Coahuila and laundered in South Texas. In court filings, prosecutors have said they want to question witnesses about a number of other politically connected Coahuilans who own property in San Antonio and have not been charged.Photo: San Antonio Express-News photo illustration

3of12Raúl González Treviño:González Treviño was Coahuila's San Antonio representative under Humberto Moreira's administration. He's the brother of Coahuila media mogul Roberto Casimiro González Treviño and owns several houses in San Antonio. In October 2013 federal agents arrested Raul González Treviño's son and charged him with drug trafficking. As part of that case, the feds are trying to seize three San Antonio houses, including one at 5 Bowood Court owned by Raul Gonzalez Treviño. In 2009, he bought another house the feds are trying to seize at 107 Champions Mill from Vicente Chaires Yañez, Humerto Moreira's former secretary. He's not been charged with a crime.Photo: Courtesy Photo/YouTube

4of12Humberto Moreira:The governor of Coahuila from 2005 to 2011, Moreira, whose mother-in-law turned over to the feds a San Antonio house, left office to lead the national Institutional Revolutionary Party. He was forced to resign after less than a year on the job after news broke that his government racked up a massive debt and hid it from the public. Moreira has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged in either country.Photo: Harry Cabluck, Associated Press

5of12José Eduardo Moreira:The son of Humberto Moreira was assassinated in October 2012 near the border city of Acuña. After his son's death, the former governor in interviews accused the Zetas drug cartel, who he said had corrupted prominent Coahuilans.

6of12Jorge Juan Torres López:The interim governor of Coahuila during 2011, after Moreira resigned to head the PRI, is under indictment in Corpus Christi. Prosecutors there allege Torres, who owns a house on Lake Conroe near Houston, broke money laundering and fraud laws when he wired millions of dollars in what they say was dirty money from Mexico to Texas bank accounts, then to a Bermuda bank account. Torres's lawyer says he's innocent.Photo: Courtesy of Vanguardia de Saltil, Courtesy Photo/Vanguardia de Saltil

7of12Héctor Javier Villarreal Hernández:The former Coahuila treasurer surrendered to U.S. officials in February at one of El Paso's international bridges. In 2014 he pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy in a San Antonio federal courtroom. Prosecutors in Mexico say Villarreal forged documents to take out hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks using the state's credit. In the U.S., Villarreal is accused of laundering tens of millions of dollars in bribes, some of them from the Zetas drug cartel.Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News

8of12Guillermo Flores Cordero:Federal officials arrested Flores, a businessman from the city of Torreón in Coahuila who owns a house in the exclusive gated community The Dominion, when he arrived at San Antonio International Airport on a private jet in August 2013. He's since pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge in Corpus Christi. Prosecutors there say he used shell companies to wire money from Mexico to the U.S. for others. The case against Flores, according to court documents, is related to the investigation of Villarreal.Photo: Courtesy Photo

9of12Oswaldo Coronado: When East Texas sheriff's deputies arrested former Coahuila Treasurer Héctor Javier Villarreal Hernández in February 2012, shortly after he'd fled charges against him in Mexico, among those detained with him was his brother-in-law Oswaldo Coronado. After Lorenzo Schuessler began cooperating with the government, the Panamanian company that owns the millions of dollars in South Texas real estate U.S. officials are seeking put Coronado in charge of the limited liability companies that are the nominal owners of the real estate. He's not been charged with a crime.Photo: BOB OWEN, San Antonio Express-News

10of12Vicente Chaires Yañez: Chaires was Humberto Moreira's personal secretary while Moreira served as governor. He's since purchased ownership in Mexican radio stations and houses in San Antonio. In 2007 his limited liability company Vicap Global Investments bought the house at 107 Champions Ridge from Saltex Investments, a company controlled by Roberto Casimiro Gonzalez Treviño. In 2011, a pair of senators from the National Action Party asked that he be investigated. He's not been charged with a crime.Photo: Especial-Agencias

11of12Lorenzo Schuessler: Another of Hector Javier Villarreal Hernandez's brothers-in-law, Lorenzo Schuessler managed several limited liability companies that prosecutors say were fronts for the former Coahuila state treasurer. In 2013, after learning that Schuessler, a former real estate agent from Eagle Pass who lives in San Antonio, was cooperating with investigators, a Panamanian company that owns the LLCs removed Schuessler as manager and replaced him with Oswaldo Coronado. He's not been charged with a crime. Photo courtesy of El Zocalo de Piedras Negras.Photo: Zocalo

12of12Francisco Xavier Flores Valdez:Humberto Moreira's nephew showed up in San Antonio in December 2013 for a deposition about $6.5 million Bexar County prosecutors are trying to seize. The money, in U.S. bank accounts, was stolen from the state of Coahuila, the District Attorneys Office alleges. Flores Valdez was among a group of Mexican businessmen who were deposed after Villarreal's lawyer argued the money came from investors. He's not been charged with a crime.

Raúl González Fernandez, the son of a prominent family from the troubled border state of Coahuila, pleaded guilty Tuesday to playing a part in a smuggling scheme that involved a drug bust in San Antonio and a cartel operative who later was killed in Torreón.

González Fernandez, 43, faces up to life in prison when he's sentenced next year, but he cut a deal with prosecutors who will ask a judge to sentence him to 41/2 years.

Federal prosecutor Russell Leachman filed the plea agreement under seal and wouldn't comment after the hearing.

His lawyer, Cynthia Orr, said González Fernandez fled drug violence in the Mexican city of Torreón but still got caught up in the narcotics trade in San Antonio.

Orr said he was “tangentially related” to the 2011 bust of 1 kilogram of cocaine, but he had introduced some of the players.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy with intent to distribute more than 5 kilograms of the drug.

“We were able to convince the government he was so removed, he wasn't involved in the mother lode,” Orr said.

González Fernandez is a U.S. citizen born in Del Rio, but he comes from a family of prominent media moguls in Coahuila, the state that borders Texas from west of Laredo to the Big Bend.

His uncle runs one of the most well-known media companies in Saltillo, Coahuila's capital, and his father once was the San Antonio representative of Humberto Moreira, the state's former governor.

Moreira's political career came to an end in late 2011, when news broke that Coahuila was nearly $3 billion in debt.

U.S. authorities are investigating allegations that former state officials laundered in South Texas tens of millions of dollars stolen from the state.

Bexar County prosecutors, in a successful lawsuit to seize $6.5 million in Texas bank accounts controlled by a former Coahuila treasurer, said in a court filing that they wanted to ask witnesses about Roberto Casimiro González Treviño, Raúl González Fernandez's uncle, who has not been charged with a crime.

Orr said her client was not charged with any financial crimes.

He agreed to forfeit his interest in three pricey San Antonio homes, she said, because they're owned by his father. Deed records show one is held in González Fernandez's name, one in the name of his father and one in the name of his brother.

John Convery, who represents Raúl González Treviño, González Fernandez's father, said his client is not involved in his son's crimes.

“We have nothing but a father's loving concern for his son. We're going to let the legal system take its normal route and look forward to being reunited as a family,” Convery said. “I think it's important to note that Raúl Sr. is a well-known businessman who built a strong business in TV cable. After decades of hard work, he sold his business and moved to the United States.”

As a spokesman for Moreira, Convery said, “Raul Gonzalez Sr. was asked by the (Coahuila) state government to get U.S. businesses to relocate to Coahuila.

He did make some efforts to do that, but those efforts were, in the end, frustrating and unsuccessful.”

González Fernandez got caught up in a smuggling scheme that Orr said involved a pair of “hangers on” and an old acquaintance from his days working in the media and restaurant business in Torreón.

Violence and cartel shakedowns in that city forced the family to settle in San Antonio several years ago, she said. While González Fernandez ran a restaurant here, Orr said, he met up with a pair of club promoters who he later introduced to Juan de Dios Rodríguez Sosa, an old acquaintance from Torreón who owned a house on San Antonio's West Side. González Fernandez knew Rodriguez because they'd both worked in the news media, Orr said.

Rodríguez also was an important member of the Zetas drug trafficking organization and was deeply involved in their Torreón operations.

San Antonio police arrested the two club promoters in December 2011 after finding a kilogram of cocaine at an apartment in the Medical Center.

One of them later admitted to a federal agent that someone previously stole 34 kilograms of cocaine from one of his stash houses. That, Orr said, was the basis of charging everyone with conspiring to distribute more than 5 kilograms of coke.

By 2012, Rodríguez, the Zetas operative, had moved back to Torreón. A little more than six months after the drug bust in the Medical Center, he was gunned down in front of his house.

Then last October, federal agents arrested González Fernandez at his home in the Champions Ridge subdivision on the North Side.

The arrest came as U.S. officials were stepping up their investigation into allegations that those responsible for Coahuila's debt were laundering the money in bank transactions and real estate deals in San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley.

They charged six people as part of the investigation, including Jorge Juan Torres López, the former interim governor who took over in early 2011 when Moreira stepped down to run the national Institutional Revolutionary Party, and Héctor Javier Villarreal, the state's former treasurer.

Torres is a fugitive and Villarreal pleaded guilty in September to financial crimes. Villarreal took kickbacks in exchange for state contracts, on one occasion granting a contract to a shell company run by the Zetas, prosecutors said. Moreira has not been charged with a crime.

When they announced last year they wanted to ask about Roberto Casimiro González Treviño, González Fernandez's uncle, as part of their money laundering investigation, Bexar County prosecutors also said they'd be questioning witnesses about Moreira and a who's-who of current and former Coahuila state officials and businessmen.